Chinese state media has gone on the defensive by publishing a roundup of foreign tourists behaving badly, perhaps pre-empting a new wave of criticism of Chinese holidaymakers as they jet off around the world for the Lunar New Year.
State-owned website People’s Daily Online said: “It has been said there is a phenomenon of Chinese people with uncivilised behaviour.”
At least they’re not outright denying it.
The article adds: “In fact, it also applies to many foreigners. Our website has combed through a number of examples of uncivilised behaviour by foreign tourists. Let’s not learn from them. Ha!”
Among the arguably less serious offences cited were incidences of foreigners climbing trees, littering popcorn, swimming in no-swim zones and two people occupying a four-person bench.
The horror.
Examples of more aggressive breaking of social norms included when a group of foreigners camped over night on the Great Wall of China in 2009, when a a bunch of blokes were caught urinating on a Shanghai freeway in 2013, and a case last month when two American sisters were arrested for taking nude photos of each other at Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex.
Okay. That shit is pretty bad.
Once it had been established that foreigners are terrible too, the People’s Daily Online casually reminded Chinese readers to behave on planes, chat quietly, queue in an orderly fashion and refrain from littering and smoking indoors.
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